Painting Waipu Cove

"Waipu Cove" Acrylic on Canvas 14x18"

Hi guys, went out painting at Waipu Cove today. Beautiful day. Had to get out of the studio. Used acrylics today for something different - had a hang of a time trying to keep the thing wet. Went a bit crazy with the technique as a result though you can't really tell now. The big idea for this one was to really push the background away which I did by basically painting all the background first as a high key painting and reserving my darkest darks for the foreground. Now that I get it home in the studio it seems to have worked pretty well - gives a real airy feel to it.

Painting in a high key just means raising the value of your darks. The impressionists used this idea a lot to capture that atmospheric quality. All you do is paint your darkest dark a few values lighter than you normally would, and make sure nothing goes darker than that - sounds simple, but it's pretty tricky when you're trying to balance everything else out there, not to mention the acrylics drying slightly darker. Much easier to do it in the studio.

The scene - you can see I took some liberties. :-)

Simple acrylic palette.

Not a bad spot to spend the afternoon.

7 members like this

Add a Comment

You need to be a member of The Complete Artist to add comments!

Join The Complete Artist

Comment by Dirk Rampling on September 13, 2011 at 10:02: Yes, very nice office you have there. Nearly has a oriental feel. Very nice.

Comment by Richard Robinson on September 13, 2011 at 9:28: Thanks Helena, I was trying to do something different up there which I think is key to improving - pushing your boundaries. But first comes many paintings learning from what I see, not changing much outside of my comfort zone, and slowly building confidence to know that I can change more than just adding a seagull or changing the shape of a tree. Then it's questions about manipulating the whole feel of the image. Very interesting and challenging - for me anyway.

Comment by Helena Ignowski on September 13, 2011 at 2:47: What a beautiful place! The work was quite impressive ... and with a different view of the landscape seen in the photo ... very cool .... and this interpretation is precisely this that I have difficulty in creating ... .... and see beyond the real ...

Congratulations Richard and to all who participated in this adventure!!